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The stunning events of September 11, 2001, were a potential template for future terrorist attacks. But since then, al-Qaida and its affiliates have been unable to mount a similar encore in the United States. The foiled Times Square attack may be a sign that these groups have been forced to shift tactics to smaller operations that are less spectacular, but are also harder to detect. Former CIA counterterrorism chief Robert Grenier says the failed Times Square bombing last Saturday may indicate that al-Qaida and its allies have abandoned more grandiose plans for the United States and are emphasizing smaller but...

Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin-Laden tried to obtain nuclear weapons, according to his former bodyguard, Nasser al-Bahri. “He dreamed of getting nuclear weapons, and I’m sure that had he got hold of them, he would not have hesitated to use them,” al-Bahri told Al-Quds al-Arabi on Wednesday morning. Al-Bahri, who is currently residing in Yemen, revealed to the London-based paper that he always carried bullets in order to kill Bin-Laden should the al-Qaida leader be arrested.

A decade ago I argued that radical Islam might horrify the West into submission through the mass sacrifice of Muslim lives. During the past two weeks Iran has virtually invited a nuclear exchange with the West, in a series of statements that blend a deranged sort of bluster with malevolent calculation. Iran's Kayhan press service warned last week, "If the US strikes Iran with nuclear weapons, there are elements which will respond with nuclear blasts in the centers of America's main cities." Meanwhile, Behzad Soltani, the number two man at Iran's Atomic Commission, proclaimed last week, "Iran will join the...

"Pirates 'smuggling al-Qaeda fighters' into Somalia Somali Islamists bent on turning their land into an international haven for Al Qaeda are using pirate gangs to offer foreign militants safe passage into the country, The Sunday Telegraph has been told." SNIPPET: "The Taliban-style Shabab group , which has already siezed control of much of the lawless nation, has enlisted the pirates' services to smuggle in al-Qaeda fighters from across the Middle East, according to Somali government ministers. They claim that up to 1,000 have arrived in recent months, swelling the ranks of the Shabab in its bid to topple the fragile...

Like it or not, one of the advantages that al Qaeda does have is an ability to change strategy without their leaders mulling it over for four months, the way President Obama did when he was trying to figure out Afghanistan. The Washington Times is reporting that during the underwear bombers second wave of talking he admitted meeting some other English Speakers at terrorism school in Yemen. Thank goodness his parents talking him into speaking, because this was all well after he shut up upon being read his Miranda rights.

The shopping malls of America will be among the next major terrorist targets. Malls make such obvious high-value targets that it's difficult to grasp why they haven't been hit up until now. Shopping malls are America's marketplaces, constantly packed with people, with uncontrolled entry, and openly vulnerable to any given form of attack. We need only consider the darkest days of the Iraqi terror campaign of 2006-2007 to grasp how the jihadis view marketplaces. Scarcely a week went by without another Iraqi marketplace bombing, with casualties largely consisting of women and children, mounting from the dozens to the hundreds. We...

Terrorists groups could soon use the internet to help set off a devastating nuclear attack, according to new research. The claims come in a study commissioned by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), which suggests that under the right circumstances, terrorists could break into computer systems and launch an attack on a nuclear state – triggering a catastrophic chain of events that would have a global impact.

A new book published by Al Qaeda shows that the terrorist group is under intense pressure and in "deathly fear" of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan, terror experts say. The 150-page book, titled "Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies," was recently posted on jihadist Web sites. It was written by a senior Al Qaeda commander, Abu Yahya Al-Libi, and features an introduction by Ayman Al-Zawahri, the No. 2 man in Al Qaeda. The book accuses some in Al Qaeda's ranks of being spies who provide intelligence, including information about Al Qaeda camps and safehouses, to U.S. forces. According to...

Muslim fighters are being told they may be justified in cannibalizing U.S. soldiers, it emerged Friday. The chilling message is contained in a recent jihadist Internet entry that quotes from the work of a prominent jihadist ideologue, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi. In one section of his work, Maqdisi discusses the idea of having to do something that is otherwise forbidden, including eating food "sacrificed for an idol," according to the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which translates jihadist "chat" sites. Maqdisi adds some scholars believe this has evolved to mean that Muslims, faced with hunger, are allowed to kill an enemy and...

The new commander of al Qaeda's paramilitary forces that operate in Pakistan and Afghanistan laid out al Qaeda and the Taliban's strategy to defeat the Coalition and Afghan government. Abdullah Sa'id, the commander of the Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army, released a statement concerning the status of the fight in Afghanistan. The statement, which has been obtained by The Long War Journal, was issued by Al Fajr Media Center, an official outlet for al Qaeda propaganda, and published on the Islamic Al Fallujah Forum. The Shadow Army is al Qaeda's elite paramilitary army. The unit has its roots...

Al-Qaida is nothing if t opportunistic. Its leadership watches the news carefully. It tracks how stories play. It adapts its tactics. Now, counterterrorism experts are worried that al-Qaida and its affiliates will be inspired by Somali pirates. "Potentially, piracy is a platform for their activities," says Robert D. Kaplan, a fellow at the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security. "There are already al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia. If they can make contact with pirate federations, then al-Qaida can use piracy as a form of terrorism." In recent months, al-Qaida has strengthened its ties with a Somali terrorist group called al-Shabab....

.."60 percent of the detainees who were released and returned to these areas have returned to fighting."

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused moderate Arab leaders of plotting with the West against Muslims and urged his followers to prepare for jihad, in a recording aired by Al Jazeera television. "It is clear that some Arab leaders have plotted with the Zionist-crusader coalition against our [Muslim] people, these [Arab countries] the United States calls the moderate states," bin Laden said, without naming any of the leaders. Excerpt: read more at link

Evil Conservative Radio (Wed 7PM Edt) continues our talk with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. Is there an Islamic plan to subjugate western culture? What is this plan and are they being successful? What do the Quran and Islamic scholars say about this? Is Obama an Islamophile and can a nation led by an Islamophile stand against this? All this and more in this clip from ECR.

Reporting from Minneapolis -- Tall and lean, with a wispy mustache and shy smile, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan chalked up A's last fall as a senior at Roosevelt High School, vowing to become a doctor or lawyer. After school and on weekends, he studied Islam at the nearby Abubakar As-Saddique mosque. He joined its youth group. "He wanted to go to Harvard," said his uncle Osman Ahmed. "That was his dream." Instead Hassan has gone to Somalia, the anarchic East African nation that his family fled when he was a toddler. On election day, Hassan and five other youths slipped away...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- A boy masquerading as a flower seller blew himself up last September before the house of Sheikh Imad Jassem, the joint-leader of the Sons of Iraq in Tarmiya, 25 km north of Baghdad. The boy, as young as 10 years old, had been stalking Jassem for three days before tripping on his flip-flops several meters away from his target. The bomb exploded prematurely, seriously wounding the leader. The innocent and immature young have been recruited and trained to be suicide bombers of the al-Qaida network in Iraq to attack Iraqi high-profile officials as well as...

A 14-year-old who was trained to kill by radicals in the tribal regions of Pakistan now sits in a crowded classroom at a detention facility in Kabul. His only wish is to see his parents again. Shakirullah, 14, is convicted of planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. 1 of 3 "I miss my parents, my mom and dad," Shakirullah says in soft tones. Like others in tribal regions, he goes by one name. Shakirullah is already a convicted terrorist for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. He says Muslim radicals lied and tricked him into becoming...

In Egypt, the GPS utility on the iPhone has been banned from the general public and is restricted to military use. The restrictions stem from fears Cairo has that terrorists can utilize the mapping tool to coordinate attacks, and Apple, which developed the popular gadget, has acquiesced and removed GPS devices from iPhones sold in Egypt. Their fears are not unfounded. Last month terrorists attacking Mumbai used Google Earth to plan the blitz, according to findings from India's security services.

NO one should feel safe without submitting to Islam, and those who refuse to submit must pay a high price. The Islamist movement must aim to turn the world into a series of "wildernesses" where only those under jihadi rule enjoy security. These are some of the ideas developed by al Qaeda's chief theoretician, Sheik Abu-Bakar Naji... Naji's book, written in pseudo-literary Arabic, is meant as a manifesto for jihad. He divides the jihadi movement into five circles - ranging from Sunni Salafi (traditionalist) Muslims (who, though not personally violent, are prepared to give moral and material support to militants)...

Western intelligence services have been expecting an al-Qaeda spectacular terrorist attack in this crucial period between the end of President George Bush’s administration and the succession of Barack Obama. Signals intelligence “chatter” in recent weeks indicated that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation might be plotting an attack “to grab the headlines” before Mr Obama takes over in the White House on January 20. British security and intelligence sources said there had been increasing concern, particularly in the United States, that a “terrorist spectacular” was on the cards. The multiple attacks on Westerners in Bombay last night showed all the signs...